Bill-file



(No Model.)

W. P. ORDWAY. BILL FILE.

No. 585,397; Patented June 29,1897.

UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

IVILLIAM F. ORDIVAY, OF MEROED, CALIFORNIA.

BILL-FILE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 585,397, dated June 29,1897.

Application filed November 2'7, 1896. Serial No. 613,626. (No model.)

To CbZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM F. ORDWAY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Merced, in the county of Merced and State of California,have invented a new and useful Bill-File, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to a pocket bill-file, and has for its object toprovide asimple and convenient construction and arrangement of partswhereby access may be had to the various pockets to facilitate theextraction of a desired paper, said pockets being indexed and meansbeing provided whereby memoranda of collections may be kept.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will appear in thefollowing descrip tion, and the novel features thereof will beparticularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective View of a bill-fileconstructed in accordance with my invention, the same being shownclosed. Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the covering-flap open toexpose the upper edges of the pockets. Fig. 3 is a side view, partly insection, of the book extended.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in all thefigures of the drawlngs.

The device embodying my invention consists of front and rear covers 1and 2, of which the former is sectional in construction, being providedwith a hinged flap 1 and between the planes of these covers is arrangeda series of pockets connected at their sides and bottoms by bellows oraccordion folds to allow expansion and thereby facilitate theintroduction of papers. The partitions 3, by which the contiguouspockets are separated and which are connected at their side and loweredges by said folds to form the pockets, are made of consecutivelydecreasing lengths from the rear toward the front cover, whereby thefront wall of each pocket terminates below the upper edge of the rearwall of the same to expose the upper edges of pa pers arranged,respectively, in the pockets. These cut-away upper edges of the pocketsare covered by the above-described flap 1 when the latter is in itsclosed position, (illustrated in Fig. 1,) but when the flap is droppedto the position illustrated in Fig. 2 a paper may be withdrawn from anyof the pockets without spreading the file. The inner side of the flap ispreferably provided with an inscribing-surface, of celluloid, slate, orthe equivalent thereof, upon which memoranda may be made and from whichthe same may be erased. Furthermore, the pockets are indexed by means ofcharacters arranged upon the front sides of the bellows or accordionfolds connecting the pocket-walls, the object in arranging thecharacters upon the folds being that while they are clearly exposed toview at the fronts of the pockets when the file is folded, as shown inFig. 2, they may be equally well seen at the sides of the pockets whenby reason of the contents thereof the file is extended, as illustratedin Fig. 3.

In connection with the above-described construction I may also employupper and lower elastic or contractible holding-bands 4. and 5, thelatter embracing the lower ends of the front and rear covers and theformer the upper ends thereof to maintain the flap 1 in place.

In connection with the lower band 5 I preferably notch or indent theangles of the front cover 1, as shown at 6, to prevent said band fromslipping out of place when the upper flap or section 1 is open andpapers are being removed from or placed in the file.

Various changes in the form, proportion, and the minor details ofconstruction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit orsacrificing any of the advantages of this invention.

Having described my invention, What I claim is-- A bill-file havingfront and rear covers of which the front cover is sectional to form aswinging flap, a series of expansion-pockets connecting said covers andbeing of succes:

sively-reduced depths toward the plane of the front cover, said pocketsbeing closed at their sides and bottoms by bellows or accordion folds,and index-characters arranged upon the side folds of the pocketscontiguous, respectively, to their upper edges, whereby they are visiblefrom the front and sides of the file, substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixedmy signature in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM F. ORDWAY.

Witnesses:

CHAS. I-I. MARKS, DAN HARRIS.

